Premier League managers struggling to handle the power of the media

"Stop that story or I stop this press conference" quipped Arsene Wenger as a reporter referred to the statement made by Jose Mourinho that he was the only manager in the Premier League not under pressure and his decision to play David Ospina instead of Petr Cech.

However, if you are an ardent fan of football, you would have been used to such statements and irritations from managers. Josep Guardiola walked out on a press conference when he was quizzed about the England manager's job whilst Jose Mourinho also famously threatened to walk out on a press conference when the Eva Carneiro fracas was being brought up continually by the reporters. It is the cause for this irritation this article aims to unearth.

After the Champions League game on Tuesday in which both Chelsea and Arsenal lost, different dailies and sport centres in the country aimed to find out the reason for their loss. Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger were faced with a barrage of questions on why John Terry and Petr Cech had been on the benches of both clubs respectively.

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The press felt Chelsea lacked leadership, motivation and solidity at the back hence justified their reason that the manager putting John Terry on the bench was an ill-timed decision whilst Arsene Wenger's decision to leave Petr Cech on the bench was not helped by the costly mistakes of his deputy David Ospina.

In their post-match conferences after the game, both managers iterated the point that they were in charge at the club hence responsible for selection decision, however, that seems to be far from the truth.

No matter how brave and courageous Jose Mourinho has shown himself to be, despite the recent media furore surrounding the situation with John Terry, he cannot deny the fact the pressure is going to affect his team selection sooner rather than later.

Jose Mourinho has clearly proved that John Terry lacks the necessary pace needed to push his defenders higher up the pitch but the recent media criticism is bound to see John Terry re-instated into the Chelsea defence sooner than he expects.

Sports centres like Sky and BT pay so much to pundits like Jamie Redknapp, Thierry Henry, Rio Ferdinand and Jamie Carragher amongst others to give their analysis of games and decisions made by managers.

These media corporations can be seen as the intermediaries between the football clubs and the fans. Fans read dailies and listen to these pundits in order to know what is happening behind the door in their various clubs, however this gives these intermediaries the opportunity to create an impression in the minds of the fans.

For example, Jose Mourinho accused Sky of running a campaign called "Diego Costa Crimes" which he believes created an impression in the mind of fans and the footballing governing bodies that Diego Costa is actually a bad personality.

I think the managers should be allowed to do their jobs and make decisions without pressure of wanting to please pundits because that is what they are being paid to do and I believe we would see less irritation from them.

The reason they are irritated and threaten to always walk out on reporters is because they feel they are being taught their jobs and losing control of their roles and no one loves to lose control.

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